CoreFirst Bank & Trust Purchases Shares of 536 Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH)

CoreFirst Bank & Trust acquired a new stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares, Inc. (NASDAQ:CBSH) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor acquired 536 shares of the financial services provider’s stock, valued at approximately $33,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in CBSH. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Commerce Bancshares by 3.4% in the fourth quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 281,040 shares of the financial services provider’s stock worth $17,512,000 after purchasing an additional 9,362 shares during the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC bought a new stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares in the 3rd quarter worth about $566,000. Procyon Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Commerce Bancshares during the 4th quarter valued at about $200,000. PFW Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of Commerce Bancshares in the 4th quarter valued at about $1,336,000. Finally, Centiva Capital LP purchased a new position in Commerce Bancshares in the third quarter worth about $581,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 70.26% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CFO Charles G. Kim sold 13,493 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, February 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $67.76, for a total transaction of $914,285.68. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 86,246 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,844,028.96. The trade was a 13.53 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Kevin G. Barth sold 24,870 shares of Commerce Bancshares stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $66.06, for a total value of $1,642,912.20. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 45,511 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,006,456.66. The trade was a 35.34 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 78,434 shares of company stock valued at $5,248,272. 3.20% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

CBSH has been the subject of several analyst reports. Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Commerce Bancshares from $69.00 to $72.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, January 23rd. StockNews.com upgraded Commerce Bancshares from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, January 13th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $67.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, January 29th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods increased their target price on shares of Commerce Bancshares from $66.00 to $78.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 4th. Finally, Raymond James cut shares of Commerce Bancshares from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and six have issued a hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Commerce Bancshares presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $68.17.

Commerce Bancshares Stock Down 0.3 %

Commerce Bancshares stock opened at $62.69 on Thursday. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $64.40 and its 200 day moving average price is $64.43. Commerce Bancshares, Inc. has a 52 week low of $48.49 and a 52 week high of $72.75. The firm has a market cap of $8.41 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.63, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 0.78.

Commerce Bancshares (NASDAQ:CBSH) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, January 22nd. The financial services provider reported $1.01 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.95 by $0.06. The company had revenue of $422.10 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $417.48 million. Commerce Bancshares had a return on equity of 16.31% and a net margin of 25.24%. Commerce Bancshares’s quarterly revenue was up 7.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. Equities analysts expect that Commerce Bancshares, Inc. will post 3.94 EPS for the current year.

Commerce Bancshares Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Tuesday, March 25th. Investors of record on Friday, March 7th were paid a $0.275 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, March 7th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.75%. This is a boost from Commerce Bancshares’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.27. Commerce Bancshares’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 27.43%.

Commerce Bancshares Profile

Commerce Bancshares, Inc operates as the bank holding company for Commerce Bank that provides retail, mortgage banking, corporate, investment, trust, and asset management products and services to individuals and businesses in the United States. It operates through three segments: Consumer, Commercial, and Wealth.